Japan Press Weekly

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2011 August 3 - 16 [TOKYO]

Tokyo governor: Japan should also conduct nuclear weapons tests

Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Ishihara Shintaro, on the eve of the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, again made an outrageous comment. He said that Japan should also conduct computer-aided nuclear weapons tests and show the world Japan’s capability of possessing nuclear arms.

During a regular briefing on August 5, Ishihara referred to the United States having carried out computer-aided nuclear weapons experiments and said, “Japan should also do this to show Japan’s willingness to possess nuclear weapons anytime it chooses to because it has a mountain full of plutonium.”

The Tokyo governor decried the pacifist principle of the Japanese Constitution by saying, “Without becoming a strong militaristic state, Japan will definitely lose its bearing.”

Citing a U.S. concept for the development of conventional ballistic missiles capable of destroying targets more accurately as an example, Ishihara suggested that Japan “make efforts to produce new strategic arms” along with the use of computer-aided nuclear weapons tests.